Flumph Racial Modifiers


Rules Questions


Writing campaign, offering flumphs as a PC race, yadda yadda,...

Ok, question. A flumph's stats are as follows:

Str 10, Dex 16, Con 11, Int 10, Wis 14, Cha 10

Since most creatures are made with a 3 point buy, and usually 1 point is put into 3 different attributes, it is easy to figure out what racial modifiers should be.

Not so much with the flumph.

I am thinking the intent was either they dropped 1 into Con and 2 into Dex or that they threw all 3 points into Con (the flavor text describes them as being frail).

So it would be either...

+4 Dex, +4 Wis

or

+6 Dex, +4 Wis, -2 Con

Anyone have any thoughts?

Edit: Also, if anyone could direct me to any flumphs in published modules or adventures, that would be fab.

Designer, RPG Superstar Judge

Whale_Cancer wrote:
Since most creatures are made with a 3 point buy,

I dispute this premise. Monsters usually do not follow the PC rules for generating ability scores.


Sean K Reynolds wrote:
Whale_Cancer wrote:
Since most creatures are made with a 3 point buy,
I dispute this premise. Monsters usually do not follow the PC rules for generating ability scores.
Quote:
Ability Scores: The creature's ability scores are listed here. Unless otherwise indicated, a creature's ability scores represent the baseline of its racial modifiers applied to scores of 10 or 11.

I did make the jump from that to creatures being built with a 3 point buy, but it has been my experience that most creatures without class levels have 3 even and 3 odd stats, suggesting they are built on a 3 point array that looks like: 11, 11, 11, 10, 10, 10.

Edit: Just to be clear, I am trying to find the racial modifiers of a flumph. It is obvious from even a cursory glance at the monster creation rules that creatures are not built using point buy arrays (or even 'hard' rules at all). The quoted text above, however, explicitly states that unless otherwise noted the racial attribute modifiers for a creature are applied to an array of 11s and 10s (for Bestiary entries, at least).

Designer, RPG Superstar Judge

Okay, but that isn't the same as a "3 point buy," which implies that the creature could spend up or down by taking higher or lower ability scores. A monster's stats are what they are—the stats of a typical specimen of that race. If you want to figure out its racial modifiers (if such a thing exists), just subtract 10 from even stats and 11 from odd stats to get the modifiers.


Sean K Reynolds wrote:
Okay, but that isn't the same as a "3 point buy," which implies that the creature could spend up or down by taking higher or lower ability scores.

Yeah, I said that in the first paragraph of my above response:

Quote:
I did make the jump from [the above quoted text] to creatures being built with a 3 point buy, but it has been my experience that most creatures without class levels have 3 even and 3 odd stats, suggesting they are built on a 3 point array that looks like: 11, 11, 11, 10, 10, 10.

To be explicit, that 'jump' I made would be incorrect though not exactly far off. Anyway, with that in mind the flumph's racial modifiers would be: +6 Dex, +4 Wis.

Sean K Reynolds wrote:
A monster's stats are what they are—the stats of a typical specimen of that race. If you want to figure out its racial modifiers (if such a thing exists), just subtract 10 from even stats and 11 from odd stats to get the modifiers.

Ok. That is what it said in the text I quoted. Why question whether racial modifiers exist? I get that - in many cases - these would be pretty pointless to figure out (such as for a T-rex), but if you are intending to add class levels to something, this seems like a more elegant solution than the attribute modifiers you are supposed to add when advancing a creature with class levels. This is also a much better method for campaigns in which monsters are offered as playable options (as I am trying to do with the flumphs).

My request for references to modules, adventures, etc., with flumphs in them is still outstanding.


So, +6 Dex, +4 Wis?


The Golux wrote:
So, +6 Dex, +4 Wis?
Whale_Cancer wrote:
...with that in mind the flumph's racial modifiers would be: +6 Dex, +4 Wis.

Sovereign Court

We do have that nifty Advanced Race Guide book with a whole chapter on how to make new races. I would probably try and build a Flumph using those rules (comparing abilities unique to Flumphs to existing stuff to try and determine the cost) and come up with something in the 10-13ish RP range if you want to balance them with other PC races.

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